(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump’s announcement on pharmaceutical tariffs could affect the cost and supply of generic drugs in the United States, according to some experts.
“We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals, and once we do that, they’re gonna come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market,” Trump said during the National Republican Congressional Committee’s fundraising dinner Tuesday. “They will leave China, India and other places because most of their product is sold here.”
Trump has just issued a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries but increased tariffs on China to 125% aside from an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods introduced in March. On top of this, Trump also claimed that Ireland took away the country’s pharmaceutical companies.
“We do have a massive deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart,” Trump said. “They took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents that didn’t know what they were doing.
According to Fox Business, American pharmaceutical companies started leaving the country for Ireland after U.S. production peaked in 2006 before the recession.
How would prescription drugs in the US be impacted by Trump’s tariffs?
According to a study from Black Book Market Research, 69% of the professionals who were surveyed believe that pharmaceutical costs will rise at least 10% because of the Chinese tariffs.
William Soliman, the founder and CEO of the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs, joined “NewsNation Now” on Wednesday and said that there would be some short-term volatility with stocks and shares in the pharmaceutical industry but that they are a positive thing for the industry and the country in the long term.
“We’re relying heavily on China in particular for a lot of our active pharmaceutical ingredients, which are used in a lot of our generic drugs,” Soliman said. “Reducing that reliance is very important in trying to pressure these big pharma companies to relocate to the U.S. to manufacture domestically.”
How could Trump’s tariffs affect prices, availability at the pharmacy?
“That additional 10% tariff is going to have a fairly significant impact on the cost of goods for the generic,” John Murphy, president and CEO of the Association for Accessible Medicines, told The Hill.
Soliman said consumers could see price increases or shortages of generic drugs in the country. There are some laws that protect consumers from getting directly hit with high prices, but medical experts said that half of the country’s generic drugs and 80% of active ingredients in drugs come from overseas.
Pharmacies and hospitals could also start stockpiling drugs to avoid paying more later.
But Soliman said Americans shouldn’t panic just yet. There’s likely a 12- to 18-month stockpile for many of these drugs, so there should be no immediate issue with supply chain shortages for generic medications, Soliman claimed.
How many US prescription drugs are imported?
According to The Hill, Chinese imports account for a large portion of the country’s prescriptions and over-the-counter medicine. Many of the drugs produced in China are generic, which is 91% of the prescriptions given to patients in America.
NBC reported that China is continuously playing a larger role in making active pharmaceutical ingredients. Pharmacopeia, a nonprofit group focusing on drug supply chain safety, said that in 2023, China had nearly 220 API facilities. This is 134 more than it had in 2021.
However, India is still the largest producer of these ingredients, with about half of all facilities.